Anger at Clara meeting

An estimated crowd of 500 people attended the first meeting of the unified N9/N10 road action group in Clara, Co. Kilkenny, on Monday night. The group's technical adviser, John Fitzgerald, outlined exactly where the group stands in his presentation: "We're not against road improvement. We know the Waterford to Kilkenny route needs upgrading, but we are stunned by the scale of the proposed new motorway. The improvements proposed in the NRA's Road Needs Study would have been acceptable, but the proposed motorway is not needed and doesn't utilise any of the existing road stock. It is a plan that's fundamentally flawed," he said.

Together with all subsequent speakers, he urged landowners and householders to refuse to attend private consultations offered by the local authorities. Instead, they should unite in a strategy of non-cooperation, refusing access to their lands and seeking detailed maps of how they would be individually affected. People were also invited to register with the action group after the meeting.

How farmers feel

Dennis Drennan from Garryduff near Paulstown got an unpleasant surprise when the route was announced last week. "Our farm is on the Red Corridor, and we were always going to be hit with the motorway, but now it's actually much worse than we feared," he said. Altogether, 12 fields of the Drennan sheep and drystock farm will be disfigured due to the motorway.

"We've lived with the railway, a gas pipeline and road widening, but this is totally different. By the time the NRA is finished with us, our farm will be in tatters, with bits and pieces of fields all over the place."

Dennis would have no problem giving the council land for road widening, but he believes the scale of this motorway will make it impossible for him to farm at Garryduff. "We've had this farm for a long time, and every generation has added to it. What really gets me is that my children won't have that opportunity. We have three little chaps and two girls between the ages of two months and twelve years, and it was our hope that one of them might have a future here, but that will never happen now," he added.

Pat O'Neill farms an 85 acre dairy enterprise in Stonecarthy, Stoneyford, Co. Kilkenny. "I am disoriented by the extent to which my farm will be affected. Five acres of my land will be taken, another 20 acres will be cut off and landlocked, while four different fields will be cut through at an angle and I will be left with four triangular pieces that will not be fit for tillage or silage. I have no information about access to the 20 acres, and I believe the effects on drainage will be huge.

"At first I thought this was an issue about my farm, but now I see that the whole concept is wrong. This road is simply a bad investment for the country. People will have to sit up and take notice. We have a moral responsibility to question the single biggest investment in infrastructure in the history of the state."

Noel Drennan, also from Garryduff, said: "This is the best roads meeting I've been at in the past few months. John Fitzgerald is an inspiration. The effects on my farm are not disastrous, but a good field with road frontage will be pulled asunder. Our land has already been the subject of a CPO back in 1960 when I was 16 years old. That left us with the old redundant road running across the farm. Are we about to inherit a second redundant road now?" he asked.

War chest

Joe Rea, chairman of the N8 roads group, spoke from the floor and told opponents of the preferred route to get a war chest organised because money was essential to fund a future legal challenge. He claimed that landowners along the N8 had donated £200 a head, while other affected parties and supporters had contributed £100 per household.

Last week John Finlay of the Ballacolla group advised those on this new route to refuse to meet NRA and council officials until they could do so on an informed basis. He also advised them to get proper maps and exact details of how they would be affected.